Ranked #530

Naruto: Shippuuden

After an endless wasteland of filler, Naruto returns! Joy! Happiness! Frowns turned upside down! I couldn't believe it when the fillers ended. I was ecstatic.

Now I'm ready with a pillow whenever I tune in every friday. Question mark? I'll tell you why I'm prone to falling asleep while watching Naruto:Shippuuden - it just isn't Naruto anymore. It just isn't the same series.

Story: Don't get me wrong, Naruto didn't just magically start stabbing me with disappointment because the story started to totally go downhill. In fact, the first episode's preview with Naruto's future encounter with Sasuke had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't believe it: Naruto was back! No, the story continues and follows through adequately as a continuation of the original Naruto. The great elements of the original story are still here: the theme of an everlasting friendship, the importance of maintaining hope, the need to endure and persevere .. these themes are all still there! Naruto is still a great guy and he still strives to protect his friends and 'save' Sasuke while taking on Akatsuki at the same time. So what happened to Naruto? Well, story-wise, nothing. I still love the story. I love the world of Naruto, the ninjas, the techniques, the weapons, the themes, the plot. Although the story doesn't present the viewers with anything deep or complicated, I still like it. But the story isn't the problem. The story as it is and as it continues, gets a 7.5/10 from me.

Characters: It was great to see how much the characters changed from the original Naruto. Character development in this aspect, was great. Pretty much everbody had a new design and they all looked great. In terms of personality, well, they were the same loveable characters, unique in their own way. In terms of Naruto and Sakura, they really developed. Although he still acts like it, Naruto isn't the same happy loudmouth he used to be. He's been deeply scarred from Sasuke's betrayal, and despite all thats happened, he's still obsessed with saving him. Of course, Sasuke's betrayal affected Sakura too and she's really toughened up. She isn't the useless twist she used to be, and shes really grown to respect and care for Naruto. Character development is great, the characters are great, old and new. Sai for example, is an interesting add on, he brought the funnies and kept the comedic aspects of the show alive. The characters aren't the problem either: 8/10

Art / Animation: Here is where Shippuuden starts going downhill. In terms of the new characters and their new character designs, I love em. But Naruto just isn't animated as well as it used to be. There is a lot of repeated animation in Shippuuden. This ranges from terribly animated tree jumping scenes (it actually looks more like they're flying instead of jumping half the time, lazy much?) to staring faces and overused flashbacks. I can understand the need to repeat the frames from things like the tree jumping scenes that are filled with dialog, or the occasional flashback to remind us of what happened in the original Naruto or something a couple of episodes ago. But the extent of it is teetering on the cliff side. The quality is just going downhill. Kakashi's new Sharingan attack for example, was terribly done in my opinion. I could have done that effect in photoshop. To make it worst, they drew it out for minutes on end ... completely destroying the 'cool factor'. There are also several still scenes that consist of pure eye to eye combat with wind blowing in the background. Cool? I think not, not when pointless staring takes up about 15% of the episode's air time. Asides from this, the coloring and detail of the characters in terms of shading and such also seem to be lacking in contrast to the original Naruto. Looking at the two, they just aren't on the same level anymore. Maybe it's because I've gotten so used to the series, or because I've watched so many more series since the original Naruto, but the quality has definitely deteriorated. Of course, some of the big fights are still animated quite nicely: 7/10

Sound: Things just get worst from here. While I loved the new opening and closing songs, the episode bgm just isn't the same. The upbeat action music heard in the original Naruto has been replaced by lame 'lets make this fight seem really tense and epic' music that fails horribly. I want the old soundtracks back! Granted, the series is alot more serious now, but the background soundtracks really can't shake the excitement meter up to where it used to be: 6/10

Ok, so it's the same story, continued. The same characters, with some cool new additions are there. The animatiors are getting a bit lazy, and the soundtracks aren't making me chew my fingernails anymore. Does this really warrant a 6?

Pacing: This is what has killed Naruto. Not Akatasuki, Not Orochimaru, not Sasuke, not Sakura's poundings - the pacing has killed our beloved hero, Naruto. This is the sole reason that the plot development seems slow and nonexistent, this is why character development is hard to note unless you really love the series, this is why animation is being reused, repeated, or not done at all, this is why I can no longer enjoy Naruto like I used to. So much time is deliberately wasted on mundane scenes such as staring, or camera panning that there are often many awkward pauses that make you wonder, 'did my computer freeze?'. This should NOT be happening in an anime! The amount of still scenes and overused camera panning should not be in surplus and evident enough to deteriorate the quality of a show! There are so many episodes that had amazing potential to be jaw-droppers, but they weren't. Intense battles like episodes 41-43 are completely ruined due to horribly SLOW SLOW pacing!

Arguably, the animators want to avoid killing its viewers with a plauge of fillers, but is it really worth it to completely destroy such a potentially satisfying anime? In my opinion, they're ruining the series. We waited and endured just as our hero taught us to - only to be attacked by this monstrosity. The pacing effectively destroyed my love for this show. You may argue that fillers are worse and thats debatable. What isn't however, is that there is enough manga material for at least another 50 FAST paced Naruto episodes. Thats a year! Probably more when you consider that by the time 50 episodes are released, there could be enough material for another 20 or so potential episodes.

Overall: Same enjoyable story with great potential. But the pacing needs to change. That pillow I mentioned at the beginning of this long, terrible review? It wasn't for sleeping. It was to stop me from killing myself from bashing my head against the desk as I watched a potentially good series slaughtered before my eyes. 6/10 read more

Shippuuden was a step-up from the original series in some ways, but it's worse at other points, making it just so-so.

The story has become increasingly complex compared to the original series. You still have the whole deal with Naruto wanting to become Hokage, but that is very overshadowed by many new plots. You have Akatsuki who's after all the Jinchuuriki, there's Sasuke and his quest for revenge, Naruto's struggle against the Kyuubi, Team 7's quest to get back Sasuke and Danzo's plot to take over Konoha. Yeah, there's a lot going on, and I enjoy that a lot - a plot-rich story is always fun to watch

But - and this is a big but - there's severe pacing problems. And by severe I mean excessively dragged out nonsense which could've been done in half the time... at least. The first arc took 30 episodes. It could've been finished in much less time, but they absolutely have to drag it out with endless nonsense fights. The Sasuke and Sai arc was fairly okay, though, but still a little slow on the pacing.

"But if they quicken the pace it, we'll get more fillers. Oh noes!" Yeah, some people think that. However, I'd rather have them quicken the pace and have more filler than getting my viewing experience ruined by a sluggish pace. Fillers can be good, you know.

The animation in Shippuuden is better. The new character deigns are great, and I find that the coloring is less dull than it was in the original series. It's becoming more flawless too, but it still struggles with small flaws here and there. However, it's still Naruto, and its animation has always been simple in my eyes. There are no big details to brag about, but sometimes simple works; it's mainly a matter of getting used to (and most people watching Shippuuden should've already watched the original series, which means that you've most likely gotten used to it).

The soundtrack so far in Shippuuden is fairly decent. I still haven't heard any remarkable themes, but none of them has been outright bad either, so I'm fine with it, but I wish they threw in some good themes. They do, however, fit right into the current events, which is a small plus. There's not much to say about the OPs an EDs so far; they've been very average.

As of episode 58, there have been low amounts of character development, and for 58 episodes that’s not really good. The reunion of the new Team 7 and Sasuke is pretty much the only traces of any character development so far, aside maybe Sai's interactions with the rest of the group, which is always funny to watch, and it's interesting to see if he'll ever learn how to properly interact with the others. The introduction of him and his actions is pretty much all that keeps my character rating on 7, because we've hardly seen any of the other characters, and the small amounts we've seen of them is nothing special, really; it's like most of them have just faded away. I'm still hoping that some good character development and all that will come though, seeing how Naruto will probably have to struggle with the Kyuubi inside of him, and not to mention getting Sasuke back; I'm hoping that it will provide us with some neat character development.

So far, I'm very "meh" about Shippuuden, but if it rids itself of the pacing problems I'm going to enjoy this much more than I'm currently doing now.

EDIT: Well, it has improved as of late (Dec '08), so I am upping the character and enjoyment ratings to 8

To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =) read more

After some time pondering, I decided to give Naruto a try. The horror-stories about the loads of fillers kind of scared me off, but the first 136 episodes were definitely not bad and well worth watching.
After that, I skipped to Naruto Shippuuden. I had no intention at all to watch fillers.

I was prepared for the worst now. Shippuuden might also have had fillers or long battles, but I was willing to watch them.
What I wasn't prepared for, were the incredibly slow episodes which were sometimes only filled with a few lines of dialogue and endless staring competitions, repeated scenes, flashbacks (sometimes even from the same (!!) episode, like episode 45) and non-entertaining fight scenes. I was wondering if the makers of this anime thought we were stupid or something if we cannot even remember what was said during the same episode, you don't need flashbacks for that!

It's just silly, not to mention plain stupid, that a good story is slaughtered by these slow, slow... slowww episodes. Because really, the story of Naruto is pretty good. It somehow has the effect that you want to continue watching, to know what happens next. That's also why I prefer the episodes in which there aren't any tedious battles.

The art is pretty good as well. It's not as detailed as the art in Death Note for example, but the characters and surroundings as well are good to look at.

The sound, well, that's my personal opinion. I preferred the music in the original Naruto. It just emphasized a bit more that it's a show about ninja's. With the flutes and drums in the battle music. In Shippuuden, I got the impression that the music just changed to plain rock.

The characters are still very good. It was very nice to see how everyone had changed and especially Sakura. Instead of being the girl who couldn't do anything during battles, she really can take care of herself now.
Not just the main characters have changed, the other characters as well. The kids from the other teams, for example, may not be on the show that often as team Kakashi, but I wouldn't just call them flat characters. Every character in the show has his own personal traits, which really is a plus point to both Naruto and Shippuuden.

Well, I already said something about the enjoyment. Some episodes just really aren't worth watching because they are too slow. Too much flashbacks and staring. It's frustrating, really. After the first arc I got used to what kind of episodes Shippuuden would still have in store for me and I took some precautions. Remote control close to me and every episode that was filled with staring and flashbacks, would be 'skipped'. Forward button at the ready and after the staring was over, I'd press play again. (Episode 42 received this treatment; actually I skipped most of that episode). I refused to waste my time staring at characters staring at each other.

So, Kishimoto did a great job coming up with this story and all the characters, but the story is ruined by the slow episode.
Still, Shippuuden is worth watching really, even if it's just for the story, but be prepared for some frustrating minutes. read more

At the time of this writing, Naruto is all but over. In fact, it might as well have been over way back when the fillers started in the first season.

What started out as a great anime with a deep story and tons of charming characters has inexplicably turned its back on most of what was good about it, first and foremost the relationship between naruto, sasuke and sakura. And there are still filler arcs in Shippuuden, one of which has just begun.

We are now at episode 95 of the second season and sasuke is still basically nowhere to be seen. The first arc showed bits and pieces of him, and he was on screen for 5 minutes at the end of it. Since then, he's appeared sporadically in flashbacks and extremely short vignettes as a way to tease the audience into thinking he will return soon and naruto will get back on track...but then another arc starts without him. And another. To top it all off, another worthless filler arc has just begun!

I don't mean to say that sasuke makes the entire series. Akatsuki is an interesting group of characters, and the majority of those great characters from the first season are still present and basically unchanged. However, Sasuke is a huge part of naruto, and he's gone. Gaara is one of the coolest characters ever, and he's gone. And another filler arc has just begun.

The art has also taken a huge hit with this series. I don't know if they changed production companies or what, but everyone suddenly looks disproportioned and the animation looks choppy and cheap. Sakura has a tendency to look quite mannish when viewed in profile. There is an infamous part of the new ending where Hinata's hair seems to be falling off. The art seems to get even worse during fillers...i don't know if i've mentioned this yet, but a filler arc has just begun!

Naruto is also no longer funny.

Well, I could sit here and write all day about how much naruto has jumped the shark, but there is one thing that should be said: I still watch it. I'm not sure exactly why, but I never miss an episode. If I had to pay even a cent for it, I wouldn't; but I still watch.

Although I might stop watching until this filler arc is over. The problem with fillers is not that they are worthless (i'd rather have fillers than nothing) but that they are so often boring and cheaply done, and often stray too far from the roots of the show. There are ways to get fillers right (see Bleach: Turn Back the Pendulum), but Naruto's fillers fail. Miserably.

Another %*#@%&! filler, and still no sasuke. Can you believe it? read more

Yes, I'm writing a Shippuuden review. Why? I really don't know myself. Well screw that, lets get into the review.

I read most of the other reviews to get an idea of what others are saying so I don't add to the pile of redundancy, and I see that many people have "tried to love Shippuuden". After watching Naruto when I was 13 and loving it, I watched other animes and realized that Naruto was far inferior to most other quality animes. Yet, because I loved Naruto so much back then (It was my first anime), the thought of an amped-up, older, maturer, badass-er Naruto tickled my anime tooth (or something like that).

The first thing that excited me about Shippuuden was "YES! THE FILLERS ARE OVER! Now we can have some actual plot movement!" The unfortunate truth: You're not gonna be getting any of that soon...
Naruto Shippuuden feels like it could be going twice as fast, wasting half as much time, and developing characters like no tomorrow. Maybe no one has any ideas about what happens after the Sasuke issue is settled, so they're stalling. It certainly feels like that, and as the episodes drag on, I feel like im drifting farther from understanding the characters, who could be wonderfully developed.

I had set my standards high for the new Naruto, but the only thing that happened in the years that I waited was I got older, the characters got older, the plotline got moldier, the fillers got bolder, and the enjoyment got colder. It feels like even sub-main plotlines are becoming fillers, which is a shame. Naruto has such potential because of its diversity and huge fanbase, but the sad truth is that shippuuden is not much different from the old naruto.

Now that all the bad stuff is out of the way, the anime is not horrible. Its still a good anime, there's just not that special shine that you find in that anime that you usually weren't expecting. Naruto has an unbelievable amount of hype for younger kids, so if you're looking for something more mature, turn away. If you're a young viewer that just started on anime (who I doubt would be reading this, but nonetheless...) look no further than naruto. Again, its not a bad anime, its just slow, and you have to be patient. Unfortunately, that is one thing that I lack while watching anime. read more

As 'good' as the normal naruto series.
Reminicent of Inuyasha - characters keep running around and nothing really (ever!) happens plot-wise(what plot? There is no plot!) for the next 300 manga chapters and 500 anime eps... Will Inyasha, ops I mean naruto, save kagome, ops I mean sasuke.... Seriously....

Most of the time is spent showing characters: running around (mostly jumping from tree to tree, it seems), standing tensely, with the wind blowing between them...Very productive and oh so tense. oh, almost forgot sakura's endless whining about poow nawuto and/or sasuke or someone/something else equally as unamusing. And naruto's whining about sasuke.

Had to watch most of it on FF (3 second skip) towards the end of the eps I had.

Another useful parallel quality-wise, would be DBZ...Except DBZ probably had more variety in the lack of plot :D. But about as much action, except characters there stood around powering up for half an ep. Which is ALSO present in naruto.

Save yourself, watch something else... read more

Another Shippuden Review
by radiantfire

Context:
This review analyses Naruto: Shippuuden (simply referred to as Shippuuden from herein), an anime adaptation of Masashi Kishimoto's shounen manga Naruto. At the time of writing, I have watched 39 episodes of the series.

Story:
Two and a half years after Naruto has ended, Shippuuden picks up with fresh new characters and story arcs. Although the anime generally remains true to the manga, small fillers give the story an unnecessary drag. It's somewhat amazing how, in some instances, 1 chapter can equal 2 or more episodes. However, I do find some fillers a pleasant addition to the general plot of the series.

Animation:
The animation, in general, is good. Most of the time, you get decent to good animation. Other times, however, offer repetitive frames as well as poor cases of movement and facial expressions. In fact, some positions just looks so awkward. Nonetheless, I find it decent to watch.

Sound:
The BGM is decent but it is incomparable to the amazing work of Toshio Masuda (main composer of Naruto). Emotions and moods aren't expressed as clearly by the BGM. Sound effects are generally alright, so too is the voice acting.

Character:
Shippuuden, at least, captures the essence of the characters. I like how they're generally portrayed. Evil characters are evil, good characters are good. What more can you ask for?

Enjoyment:
As a sequel, Shippuuden doesn't match up to Naruto (that is, if you don't consider all those fillers). As a separate entity, however, it's a pretty decent anime. I'm pretty sure there'll be mix comments on how people have enjoyed the series. I, for one, find it okay to watch. read more

Note: Review has been suitably edited to match my views on the anime as of present time. Will have spoilers. You've been warned.
-I'm not a native english speaker, there may be some errors. Please accept my apology.-

Naruto or Naruto Shippuuden?
If I were to compare naruto and naruto shippuuden, somewhere down the line I would still prefer the former. Although I accept naruto shippuden has better fight scenes, the disappointing twists and turns have multiplied considerably too.

Characters:
Naruto shippuuden has an army of fans for a reason, and one of the biggest reason is this - the characters. Almost all types of people will find atleast one lovable character in this series, not to mention there are so many! In naruto there are no outright good or bad guys. Almost every character is very believable although sometimes they tend to get repetitive (spoiler >> all those "healed" by naruto pretty much have the same sob history as him. Gaara, pein..why?)

Character development:
The leads:
The thing I find irritating about the series is that sasuke is hyped too much. (haven't we had enough of mourning for sasuke while the characters grew up?) ..and yet he is nowhere to be seen. I'd prefer if the entire series stops going hush hush about him and actually have him take up proper screen space for once. The "mystery" charm is not working anymore, in fact its getting irritating.
In the recent episodes, naruto's significance has considerably increased which makes me happy because to me it somewhat always felt like naruto as the lead was being sidelined a bit. A character's importance is not entirely calculated by his screen space. He has grown up wonderfully after his recent encounters with akatsuki, and for once something in naruto made me feel all happy like the good ol' naruto series.
Sasuke, he seems to be really strong now after training for years under Orochimaru but much can't be said as the anime hasn't progressed so far. The manga is another ball, ofcourse. Although on personal or emotional level (whatever way you like to see it) he still remains the b@st@rd who will not even twitch for a split second before tossing naruto's feelings aside; who along with sakura is still ever so determined to bring him back home. Such level of coldness for someone who loves and cares for you so much is not "cool", its outright irritating.
The third and probably the most criticised one, sakura, is a complete contrast from her old days now. While the heartache of losing sasuke is still there, she's become a gem of a medical ninja AND has the much in/famous montrous strength inherited from Tsunade; which is impressive. I don't mind if she's not in the war zone fighting, as long as she is good in what she's doing which she is, so even though I didn't like sakura initially; I do not completely agree to her being criticized now. I just hope they give her more significant role to play. Also, her relation with naruto has developed considerably and in a good way.

The side sicks:
spoiler >>One thing I find really irritating with this series is that every character you start liking meets an unexpected end, and not in a good way. Sasuke is TEH GOD, naruto is the broken hearted kid in distress and sakura..well she still exists. Not that I have any grudge against sasuke, infact he used to be one of my favourites in naruto series; but I think there are far too many good characters with great potential in the series that are majorly sidelined while sasuke is being hyped to the level that it left some fans irritated. (Again I must go back to the point that if he is so important then don't have almost 100 episodes with pretty much no screen presence of him at all! Talk less and show more is what I want to say, and minus the army of fangirls if at all possible.)

Akatsuki: SPOILERZZZZZZ!!
What excited me most about naruto shippuudin is akatsuki. What excited me most about the entire naruto universe ever since I came to know something like akatsuki existed is AKATSUKI. When they were finally introduced, I was nearly ready to shed tears of joy. I guess that was one of the very rare fangirlish moment I had in my life as an otaku. But the way it happened made my jaw fall on the floor. With disappointment, that is. They make an awesome character like hidan, and he pretty much (almost) dies with not even one "proper" fight. It left me utterly frustated. And I just couldn't understand someone like kakuzu who survived a fight the great you-know-who got his ass handed to him just like that by naruto. Okay, naruto got stronger and all that but still, the transition was a bit too sudden for me to believe. As for sasori I really can't complain because what happened was no surprise (and one thing .. please he did not get owned by sakura. I find it so hard to believe why people keep forgetting that someone who actually knew so much about him was there too!! Defeat was only natural).. but I'd have been really happy if he had made a come back or something. Whatever, illogical demands.. heh.

Anime progress:
Another blooper is the progress of anime. With animes where anime and manga have become quite close, frequent fillers are acceptable and NEEDED. But naruto manga is like..zillion light years away from the anime then what is the need of such slow progress? I dropped naruto at ep 100 due to its slow progress and temporarily switched to other animes. Once it gains its pace, being a narutard I'm; I'll most likely be lured into watching naruto again.


Animation:
Something is wrong with naruto's quality, its not just the same anymore. The anatomy sometimes is horribly wrong .. to the point that you're able to notice it even when something really interesting is going on. The jumping from trees to trees scenes almost always look like people are flying, and some things just don't make sense anymore. Considering that the anime takes its own sweet time in progressing compared to manga, this type of quality is a major setback to fans but if you're a narutard fear not. You'll pretty much still be glued to this anime no matter how bad it gets.

Sound:
I'm one of those people who don't get bothered a lot by sound unless its so off to the point that its ruining the scene so I pretty much find the sounds okay. The openings and ending except one or two aren't all that great compared to other animes but still fine.

The biggest setback.. fansub: This is not important and perhaps not related.. but while I'm at it why not cover this too?
We all know dattebayo, if you don't then you probably don't watch naruto and shouldn't be reading this review because its full of spoilers. Anyway, the biggest setback came to me when crunchyroll took up naruto leading dattebayo to drop it. My source of watching HQ naruto was lost because DB won't sub it, crunchyroll won't air it for our country because its licensed here and I won't get to see it because for whatever xyz reasons CR doesn't know, NARUTO IS NOT ON SALE HERE! Shipping from abroad costs more than the actual anime, which is obviously not an option. And its not just me, a huge chuck of anime fans in my country stopped watching naruto for the same reason after DB dropped it.



In a nutshell, I think naruto shippuuden is a good anime with outstanding characters, but not-so-good priorities and balance between characters. Neverthless, it still deserves at least one time watch. Its one of the most popular anime of today's time, reviews only matter upto a limit.. don't they? read more

I went into this thinking that it was going to be all right, but I hoped too soon. I should have known if they can bog viewers down with 50+ episodes of filler for the original series, the same would happen for the sequel.

This anime is long, drags on for all eternity and stupid.

Don't waste your time, go read the summary or something. Better than wasting hours from your life.

It gets two unfabulous thumbs down (well, not my thumbs, because mine are fabulous).

When is Sasuke and Naruto going to die, anyway? That's the only reason I would finish this, to see any one of those two losers bite the big one. read more

Did you enjoy watching Naruto, or are you still reading Naruto's manga, impatiently waiting for next chapter?

Then Naruto Shippuuden is NOT for you.

As Naruto was an great anime, it's successor is just one, big soap opera. This "work of art" is overloaded with fillers and many sub-plots. What is more, every one fight or event is extended to the maximum possible amount of time - because of "we-don't-want-to-reach-manga's-plot-so-soon".
Oh, look, it's Kakashi preparing an eye technique! In manga, it was prepared within 2 frames. In anime, it took _whole_5_eps_ to make it prepared (that's 5 weeks of waiting! o_O)

If you have plenty (I mean, very, very much) of free time and you're sure NOTHING will bore you, try watching Naruto Shippuuden. read more